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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMartin O'Malley and the Politics of Moral Duty
from John Nichols at The Nation:
Martin O'Malley Attempts a Politics of Moral Duty
___Martin O'Malley embraces elements of a Catholic social justice ethic that will be highlighted as Pope Francis tours the United States this year. The governor is often at his best when he speaks of a duty to address poverty and inequality, and of the need to respect the dignity of work with living-wage pay and workplace fairness. As governor, he acted on these values by, for instance, making Maryland the first state in the nation to require government contractors to pay their employees a living wage and arguing passionately and practically for raising the state's minimum wage to $10,10 an hour.
That does not mean that O'Malley marches in lockstep with the church; he is pro-choice and he has been a leading advocate of marriage equality; when Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O'Brien urged the governor to oppose marriage equality, O'Malley replied, "I do not presume, nor would I ever presume as governor, to question or infringe upon your freedom to define, to preach about, and to administer the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church. But on the public issue of granting equal civil marital rights to same-sex couples, you and I disagree." O'Malley signed the law and then defended it when opponents sought unsuccessfully to overturn the measure with a statewide referendum.
On issues such as repealing the death penalty, supporting the rights of workers to organize and working to eradicate poverty, O'Malley has taken bold stands that he argues are grounded both in common sense and common morality. He signed a 2013 measure barring prosecutors from seeking death penalty judgements in Maryland and then commuted the sentences of the four prisoners remaining on Maryland's death row to life imprisonment.
O'Malley did not deny the serious practical and political challenges that had arisen as thousands of children from Central America crossed into the United States in the spring and summer of 2014. He recognized that there were a lot of issues to be resolved with regard to the particular circumstances of the childrenand with regard to broader need to reform the nation's ill-defined and frequently dysfunctional approach to immigration policy...
With his argument that the reality of why immigrants flee their own lands must be taken into consideration, O'Malley broke with prominent members of both parties to demand that the response to the plight of the children be a humane and knowing one. "We are not a country that should send children away and send them back to certain death," O'Malley told reporters at a National Governors Association meeting in Nashville. "I believe that we should be guided by the greatest power we have as a people, and that is the power of our principles. Through all of our great world religions, we are told that hospitality to strangers is an essential human dignity."
read more: http://m.thenation.com/blog/208697-martin-omalley-attempts-politics-moral-duty
O'Malley in prayer circle outside Simmons Memorial Baptist
https://twitter.com/PeterCrispino/status/593173747487629313/photo/1
JustAnotherGen
(31,869 posts)With his argument that the reality of why immigrants flee their own lands must be taken into consideration, O'Malley broke with prominent members of both parties to demand that the response to the plight of the children be a humane and knowing one. "We are not a country that should send children away and send them back to certain death," O'Malley told reporters at a National Governors Association meeting in Nashville. "I believe that we should be guided by the greatest power we have as a people, and that is the power of our principles. Through all of our great world religions, we are told that hospitality to strangers is an essential human dignity."
bigtree
(86,005 posts)from July 11, 2014:
It is contrary to everything we stand for to try to summarily send children back to death, the Democratic lawmaker told reporters. OMalley also criticized the kennels in which those who have been detained are being kept and calling for the children to be placed in the least restrictive locations, including foster homes or with family members in the U.S.
Through all of the great world religions we are told that hospitality to strangers is an essential human dignity, OMalley said. It is a belief that unites all of us. And I have watched the pictures of young kids who have traveled for thousands of miles. I can only imagine, as a father of four, the heartbreak that those parents must have felt in sending their children across a desert where they can be muled and trafficked or used or killed or tortured. But with the hope, the hope, that they would reach the United States and that their children would be protected from what they were facing at home, which was the likelihood of being recruited into gangs and dying a violent death.
OMalley said the whole world is watching how the U.S. responds to the humanitarian crisis.
We have to do right not just by these kids but by our kids and protect the children who are here, put them in the least restrictive settings, get them out of these detention centers and these kennels where they are being cooped up, and operate as the good and generous people that we have always been, he added. Thats whats at stake here, as well as the lives of these kids.
more: http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10026628573
JustAnotherGen
(31,869 posts)And he 'gets' that. And he's not afraid to lose a vote over it.
And he's running TOWARDS it.
I have a subset of people in my life - they are fellow UU's. We socialize together - and this one -
He puts a twinkle in all of our eyes.
He gets humanity.
I'm not saying other people don't - but he really GETS it. It's who he IS.
I don't think I've seen that much heart space in a candidate since Jimmy Carter left office.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Multiple candidates with their moral compass pointing in the right direction.
JustAnotherGen
(31,869 posts)I'm not going to bludgeon any of the four people who are so close to the White House.
I don't believe the Republicans can win the White House.
So I'm going to treat the four I believe could be the next Democratic President with respect! And they all have a few things that I'd like to see the eventual nominee pull into one platform
I think things are going to change after he announces tomorrow, and it will be a good change.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)bigtree
(86,005 posts)Andy823
(11,495 posts)scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)I'm glad he's going to announce, his sounds like a voice worth being heard.